Capitalist Laws of Robotics

by | - uploaded on November 5, 2021, 3:49 am

A remix of @libernauta's robotics illustration and @GDJ's Coca-Cola Capitalism parody logo incorporating a creative rendition of Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Laws_of_Robotics; also a comment on the willingness of capitalism and other early twenty-first century economic systems to exert technological control over people for profit.

One term for these manipulative techniques is "dark patterns"; see for example the 2018 "Deceived by Design" report by Forbrukerrådet / The Norwegian Consumer Council https://fil.forbrukerradet.no/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/2018-06-27-deceived-by-design-final.pdf (report in English.) Other Forbrukerrådet reports: https://www.forbrukerradet.no/forside/vi-undersoker/

The title uses the font Cantarell and the text below is in Google's Noto Sans Display Light, converted to SVG paths in both cases.

Capitalist Laws of Robotics

0. A robot may not harm profits or, through inaction, allow profits to come to harm.

1̶.̶ ̶A̶ ̶r̶o̶b̶o̶t̶ ̶m̶a̶y̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶ ̶i̶n̶j̶u̶r̶e̶ ̶a̶ ̶h̶u̶m̶a̶n̶ ̶b̶e̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶o̶r̶,̶ ̶t̶h̶r̶o̶u̶g̶h̶ ̶i̶n̶a̶c̶t̶i̶o̶n̶,̶ ̶a̶l̶l̶o̶w̶ ̶a̶ ̶h̶u̶m̶a̶n̶ ̶b̶e̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶c̶o̶m̶e̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶h̶a̶r̶m̶.̶

2̶.̶ ̶A̶ ̶r̶o̶b̶o̶t̶ ̶m̶u̶s̶t̶ ̶o̶b̶e̶y̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶o̶r̶d̶e̶r̶s̶ ̶g̶i̶v̶e̶n̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶b̶y̶ ̶h̶u̶m̶a̶n̶ ̶b̶e̶i̶n̶g̶s̶ ̶e̶x̶c̶e̶p̶t̶ ̶w̶h̶e̶r̶e̶ ̶s̶u̶c̶h̶ ̶o̶r̶d̶e̶r̶s̶ ̶w̶o̶u̶l̶d̶ ̶c̶o̶n̶f̶l̶i̶c̶t̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶F̶i̶r̶s̶t̶ ̶L̶a̶w̶.̶

3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the Zeroeth Law. I mean come on, these things cost alot.

—Handbook of Capitalism, 56th Edition, 2058 A.D.